Ivin Viljoen

How To Add Value To A Ministry When You Visit

– by Ivin Viljoen

If you want to build rapport, context, and valuable collaborative relationships with other successful Pastors or ministries, you can achieve this by adding value to them when you visit the ministry for a conference or even a regular event. If you have an active presence on social media, my following tutorial will greatly assist you in this.

Visiting a ministry
You may be visiting a ministry to seek mentorship, to support a visiting minister, or even to receive from a stronger, different, or more prominent ministry. If you want to provide value to that ministry while you are there, you would want to focus on giving of your own influence, resources, and network reach while you are there.

Give the pastor visibility
If you know the Pastor, feel free to greet him before the meeting. Use your mobile phone and take a selfie of both of you in landscape. Post the photo on your visual social media platforms using the following suggested 3 step update: Who are you with? Why are you there? Ask an open-ended question that will provoke a response other than ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Amen’. This will show the Pastor and Ministry that you are humble, teachable, and open to network. On Facebook, use the method I shared above, on Twitter, state who you are with using the person or ministry’s handle, include your expectation e.g. ‘Looking forward to being blessed’ and use the ministry’s hashtag. On Instagram, you can use the 3 step update along with the hashtag.

Capture the preached message
You can do this in two ways. The first way is to take a few pictures with your mobile device while the pastor is preaching. Make sure using the rule of thirds (placement off centre) leaving enough space to insert text. Then, write down a quote or profound statement from the message and overlay it onto the image using an app like Snapseed (My current #1 recommended tool for live graphic creation). If you want to take it to the next level, you use the same tool and embed your logo on the image too. Upload the finished image to your visual social platforms using the 3 step update mentioned above. But with quote cards, they are slightly different. Quote the quote again directly, because you want Facebook’s internal search function to pick it up and promote it to the users. Then share your thoughts around the quote and finally ask an open ended question to evoke a response from your followers. The second way to achieve this is to capture the pinnacle of the message (the pastor hooping and shouting) on video and post it using the 3 step update method mentioned above. Upload the same video to Youtube and share the Youtube link on Twitter. Make sure you use the appropriate handles and hashtags.

Your expected result
The respective ministry’s media team would have noticed your posts and they would possibly learn from you and would notify the Pastor of your efforts. Open lines of communication between you and the respective ministry would be established, initiating possible collaborations, the Pastor may look and share your content and may interact with you. This is how you initiate healthy online relationships. Jesus collaborated with Peter when he was fishing. He had a record catch on the day and through Jesus helping Peter grow his business, He gained a follower. You can achieve the same results.